Pubdate: Thu, 19 Nov 2015
Source: Sacramento News & Review (CA)
Column: The 420
Copyright: 2015 Chico Community Publishing, Inc.
Contact:  http://newsreview.com/sacto/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/540
Author: Ngaio Bealum

SPEAKEASIES AND PROHIBTION

Just wanted to know if you can give me some info on these two local 
speakeasies or breadcrumbs that will lead me in the direction I seek.

- -JP

I really shouldn't. These spots exist in a legal gray area (kinda 
like cannabis clubs back in the day). Dry snitching is almost worse 
than real snitching. However, if you look for "City of Trees 
Smokeout" or "Orbitz" on the Instagram, you could probably find the 
info you are after. I will remind you that these events are for MMJ 
patients only and you will need a valid letter of recommendation from 
your doctor plus a California ID. Good luck and have fun.

What's up with the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration 
calling medical marijuana a joke? Is he off his meds?

- -Jeff

He is not off his meds. He is just trying to adjust to the new 
paradigm while protecting his $2 billion (you heard me: Two. Billion. 
Dollars.) budget. ICYMI: At a press briefing last week, DEA head 
Chuck Rosenberg had this to say about medical cannabis: "What really 
bothers me is the notion that marijuana is also medicinal-because 
it's not. We can have an intellectually honest debate about whether 
we should legalize something that is bad and dangerous, but don't 
call it medicine-that is a joke." A joke?! Really? How he can say 
these things whilst keeping his face from contorting is beyond me. 
Has anyone on his staff ever showed him even one of the hundreds of 
studies showing cannabis to be an effective medicine for a variety of 
ailments? All he has to do is go to Granny Storm Crow's 
super-comprehensive list of cannabis studies 
(http://grannystormcrowslist2014.webs.com/) and he will see that his 
comments are ridiculous. Marijuana has been a good and safe medicine 
for thousands of years.

That he would continue try to go after marijuana users and the 
cannabis industry despite the fact that the U.S. government has a new 
law that is supposed to keep the DEA away from states that have 
legalized cannabis is despicable. (Last month, the DEA received a 
scathing rebuke from federal judge Stephen Breyer. He called its 
attempts to circumvent the new law "counterintuitive and opportunistic.")

If I was in charge and had just been smacked down by a federal court 
and had just looked at the results of the DEA's own 2015 National 
Drug Threat Assessment Summary wherein more than 1,000 law 
enforcement agencies listed marijuana as the lowest threat (6 percent 
of respondents said marijuana was a problem), maybe I would try to 
shift my priorities. The DEA is outmoded anyway. Drug abuse is a 
social-health issue, not a criminal issue. Prohibition creates crime. 
There's a petition on Change.org to try to get Rosenberg replaced. I 
feel like we need a petition to replace the entire DEA.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom